The Russia-NATO partnership remains a key element of security in the Euro-Atlantic region, NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said on Wednesday, opening a ministerial of
the NATO-Russia Council (NRC) in which RF Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is taking part.

"We have made considerable progress in our co-operation on Afghanistan and in combating terrorism," he stressed. According to him, the ministers of 29 NRC member countries are to consider a wide range of issues, including co-operation in the elimination of Syrian chemical weapons in interaction with the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons

(OPCW).

We have also launched a new project - trust fund for obsolete munitions disposal. This work will be started in Kaliningrad," Rasmussen said.

He noted that the relations with the "partner states" would be considered at the NRC meeting on Wednesday among other issues. He did not mention the missile defence problem on which Russia and NATO have not reached compromise so far.